Thanks for the verification, dchomak. Also, the Utilitech I was speaking of looks like this:
It appears to be a slightly updated version of the one reviewed by Old Lumens here
I was even able to fit an 18650 in it and turn it on; though without modification, the head was loose. Anyhow, just wanted to quickly let people know, as they’re probably going to Lowe’s anyhow.
Thanks for the link and ideas on what can be done with it! I like how both this and the Lux Pro are so easily disassembled…easier than that de.Power. Speaking of which, I picked up some pin pliers today as well, so I can finally start stripping some of these lights down. Now I just have to pick up some supplies from Mountain Electronics :bigsmile:
6.36mm from the underside of the shelf to the ledge that the contact board would rest on. There’s not enough room for one, thought one could in theory use a short ring of copper pipe as a spacer and solder that to the contact board.
Thanks dchomak, got my LuxPro today from my local Long Island Lowes. Had to go through the stock because the ones in the front of the bin where the regular XP-G’s and the ones in the back where the newer XP-G2’s. Very happy with it.
Grabbed one this morning. The entire display was full (restocked maybe?). Everyone I looked at was an XP-G2. Seems really nice on the outside, great feel. It's not until you open it up that it looks like a Chinese budget light. I wonder how much resistance is in that stock switch/contacts. Seems it wouldn't be so good with an MT-G2 with (2) 26650's!
Checked on these at Lowes yesterday (Black Friday) and they were the same price - $12.97. Display price tag says 11/28 thru 12/6 I believe. My lowes seemed to still have tons of these lights at 5pm. Don't think they are appealing to people.
BTW- Do the LED Maglites not go on sale for 50% off anymore? I didn't see any.
Nope, I think since they went the Home Depot way with a bunch of cheaply made lights, that they felt it's time to ditch Maglite. The junk Chinese lights are taking over here now. Look around. I see them at all the big retailers and even the smaller ones now. Hardly any Maglites around any more, but what is most upsetting, is that these lights coming in are actually worse quality than what we buy and the pricing is totally crazy. Way too high for most of them, as far as the quality goes.
I predict that within 3-5 years Maglite will either be sold off to a Chinese company, or made in China and assembled here. A way of life here, is almost totally gone, but then, so am I...
5 years ago Maglite announced some parts were manufactured in Croatia.
I don’t know if sales figures are in decline. I think Maglite is a private company without public quarterly reports. http://www.croatiantimes.com/index.php?id=3074
I also read once that 300 million minis have been sold since 1984.
Tried a freshly charged 14500 and a dummy cell both in Eneloop AA to D adapters.
Modes worked fine, pulled 1.85 amps.
I may consider making my own wood dummy cell of the needed size to run one 26650.
That should yield tons of run time.